The presentation explores the complexities of identity formation for Black women in the diaspora, using Jamaica Kincaid's fiction as its central focus, especially the short novel "Lucy." In it, the protagonist's migration from Antigua to North America serves as a powerful lens through which to examine the challenges of navigating a new cultural landscape while simultaneously grappling with the legacies of colonialism and its impact on self-perception. The paper argues that Lucy's journey is not simply a geographical one, but a profound exploration of the performance of identity.

Kincaid's female characters, both within and beyond the familiar confines of their Antiguan upbringing, are confronted with societal expectations and racial dynamics. I will analyze how Kincaid's protagonists strategically perform different versions of themselves as a means of survival and self-discovery. Each performance is not merely a mask, but a complex negotiation of their evolving sense of self.

However, the performative aspect of identity also presents significant challenges. The presentation will delve into the inherent tensions between authentic self-expression and the pressures of assimilation. Kincaid's narratives often represent the tension between the search for a sense of belonging inextricably linked to the need to reconcile Caribbean (Antiguan) heritage and American environment. Ultimately, this presentation argues that Kincaid's representations of female characters are a powerful testament to the resilience and agency of Black women in the diaspora as they navigate the complexities of identity and belonging in a postcolonial environment.

In "The Suicide of an American Girl" , Alice Walker portrays the transnational experiences of protagonist Anna Harriman, who traverses between the United States and Africa, revealing the challenges of identity and cultural belonging faced by Black women in a globalized world. Anna’s attempt to find solace in Africa, which she perceives as her "cultural motherland," results in disillusionment as the gap between expectation and reality deepens her identity crisis. Africa, instead of offering a sense of belonging, exacerbates Anna’s anguish over racial and cultural estrangement. Through Anna’s personal tragedy, Walker reflects on the intricate intersections of self and other, as well as the profound contradictions faced by Black women in transnational spaces.

Walker’s personal experiences significantly inform this narrative. Her travels to Africa, her return to Mississippi, and her eventual departure from her hometown shaped her nuanced understanding of transnational identity negotiation and cultural conflict. By drawing on these experiences, Walker questions the costs and possibilities of identity mobility in the age of globalization, highlighting the ways Black women navigate and reconstruct their identities within the multiple borders of race, culture, and space.

This paper employs the theoretical framework of transnational identity negotiation to analyze the themes of cultural estrangement and racial conflict depicted in "Suicide of an American Girl." It explores how Walker’s literary work examines the processes of identity reconstruction and cultural resistance among Black women in diverse cultural contexts. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how Walker’s works transcend geographical and historical boundaries, addressing contemporary issues of globalization and Black women’s cultural identity while offering new theoretical insights into the politics of identity in transnational movement.

This paper explores Gayl Jones’ novel Mosquito as a vivid depiction of the complex intersections of African American, Mexican immigrant, and other marginalized identities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Through the lens of everyday life politics, this study examines how Mosquito reflects the fluid, transnational dynamics that shape identity and community beyond rigid national and cultural boundaries. By focusing on the permeability of these boundaries and the active resistance of imposed norms, this paper analyzes how Jones portrays the border region as a space where identities, allegiances, and belonging are continuously renegotiated. It argues that Mosquito highlights the powerful role of mobility and movement in fostering a transnational sense of community and solidarity among diverse, often marginalized groups. In Jones’ narrative, everyday practices—such as storytelling, cultural exchanges, and acts of solidarity—redefine the boundaries of community, presenting the border not as a dividing line but as a transformative zone of interaction and agency. This paper contributes to scholarship on Black transnationalism by positioning Mosquito as a key literary work that challenges conventional understandings of identity, belonging, and resistance in transnational spaces.

Rooted in nationally defined conditions and primarily addressing its immediate audience of Indigenous and white Australians, Australian Indigenous literature performs an important role in the articulation of Indigenous peoples’ protest, constituting an indictment of white Australian colonial ideology, recuperation of neglected Aboriginal history, and a call for redefining blackness. However, despite its preoccupation with the local and the national, this literature is also a component of world literature in the sense that it raises ethical questions about societal, political and cultural violence and abuse that continue to haunt all societies in the 21st century. Focused on the poetry collection of Wiradjuri poet Jeanine Leane Dark Secrets: After Dreaming A.D. 1987–1961 (2010), this article demonstrates how Leane confronts assumptions about the irreducible division between empowered and disempowered cultures. It argues that, despite the plurality of cultural responses to colonial pressure, Leane’s verse deals with wider themes and provides spaces for cross-cultural relationality.